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Oreste poggiolimi 



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AMERICA AT WAR 



An address delivered on April 6, 1918 
in the rooms of the Lyceum in Florence, Italy, translated into English by 

Chas. M. Meehan and Rufus G. Mather 




The people of Rome solemnize in the Colosseum the anniversary of the entry into 
war of the U. S. of America. 



Published under the auspices of the 

SOCIETA D' INCORAGGIAMENTO DEL LA SPEZIA 

and other friends of the United States. 



(Copyright reserved) 



FOREWORD. 

The translators have thought it proper to write 
a brief preface by saying that Poggiolini 's speech 
has contributed efficaciously to make clear to the 
most intelligent public in Italy the moral and 
effective importance of the American intervention 
in the War. 

Indeed, this speech, delivered for the first time 
in Florence, for the anniversary of the entry into 
war of the United States, and repeated at Milan, 
Turin, Genoa, Venice, Siena, La Spezia, Parma 
and other important Italian cities, left everywhere 
a comforting impression of confidence and of the 
liveliest sympathy for the new and most powerful 
Ally. 

At Turin there occurred an unusual and cha- 
racteristic incident: a distinguished professor of 
the University of that city arose in the audience to 
thank the orator in the name of the listeners, ex- 
pressing his pleasure and satisfaction that he (the 
orator) had illuminated with such efficacious cle- 
arness a problem concerning which not even the most 
intelligent minds had exact and definite ideas. 

The Italian edition of this speech has been 
distributed broadly under the auspices of the Assi- 
stenza e Resistenza Morale of Orsanmichele, Florence, and 
circulated at the Italian Front through the initiative 
of the Commands of the First and Second Armies. 

Finally, the translators think well of adding 
that they have gladly given the time and effort 
necessary to put this address into English, in the 
hope that by so doing they may help to win the 
War. 

Charles M. Meehan 
Rufus G. Mather 

members of the American Ked Cross in Italy, Florence Branch. 



AN APPEAL OF LLOYD GEORGE 

While awaiting the gigantic offensive which the 
Germans were preparing on the Western Front and 
while the violent and fraudulent peace with Russia was 
being perpetrated - that peace which has been so shrewdly- 
named the deformed child born of the monstrous union 
of anarchical frenzy and despotic militarism, we often 
find that we are asking ourselves : « Do the Americans 
really feel the War ? Are they working seriously ? And 
will their help reach us in time to be of use ? 

A few days ago this message from Lloyd George 
was given out to the public in America by the English 
Ambassador to the United States: 

« We are at the crisis of the War. Attacked by an 
immense superiority of German troops, our Army has 
been forced to retire. The retirement has been carried 
out methodically before the pressure of a steady suc- 
cession of fresh German reserves, which are suffering 
enormous losses. 

« The situation is being faced with splendid courage 
and resolution. The dogged pluck of our troops has for 
the moment checked the careless onrush of the enemy, 
and the French have joined in the struggle ; but this 
battle, the greatest and most momentous in the history 
of the world, is only just beginning. Throughout it the 
French and English are buoyed up with the knowledge that 
the great Republic of the West will neglect no effort 
which can hasten its troops and ships to Europe. In war, 
time is vital. It is impossible to exaggerate the impor- 
tance of getting American reinforcements across the A- 
tkntic in the shortest possible space of time ». 

The burning appeal which the English Prime Mi- 
nister throws out to the American Republic cannot be 
considered to be a reproof. It is a cry for help, which 
has stimulated in a beneficent way the energetic fervor 
of the great federation already subjected to intense 
strain. 



Germany has always boasted that she did not take 
seriously the help from across the ocean. But she was 
so much preoccupied about it that she has hurled her 
hordes into the assault and slaughter before it could have 
its complete development. The grave, the vital problem 
for the Entente is to resist while awaiting the coopera- 
tion of America. It is therefore opportune to speak to- 
day of the American intervention a year after the entry 
into the War of the United States; to define the moral 
reasons for it and to judge rightly of their work. 

It is also timely so to do, because the American 
intervention is undervalued by internal enemies here, 
who follow the orders of the Central Powers with the 
faithfulness of paid hirelings. And it is also undervalued, 
and perhaps in good faith, by the pessimists, who, be- 
cause of pessimism, did not believe it to be likely, but 
declared it to be most efficacious when actually they 
judged it to be either impossible or remote. 

Let us say, first of all, to be sincere and truthful, 
that until it became an accomplished fact, very few, practi- 
cally no one, believed in the intervention of the United 
States in the European conflict. The long period consu- 
med in sending messages caused us to lose faith. Our 
ever ready irony, which often makes us hasty and unjust, 
had ample field to exercise itself behind the back of the 
President, who was always putting off until the next 
time what was to be the supreme decision. We shall have 
further opportunity of speaking of the famous notes ; 
meanwhile it is only just that we render homage and 
recognition to him who was the forerunner and first apostle 
of the American intervention - to Theodore Roosevelt, 
v 

ROOSEVELT'S CAMPAIGN 

Theodore Roosevelt did not await the maturing of 
public opinion, but was the first to help to shape it. 
Proud and audacious, he thundered against Germany in 



— 5 — 

public speeches and in articles in the most widely cir- 
colated magazines two years before America had made 
the grave decision. In his speeches one finds forceful 
fearlessness and extraordinary foresight. 

The Pacifists, headed and backed up by the German 
element, were working to the utmost to put the con- 
science of the public to sleep. One of their topical 
songs which had enjoyed a certain popularity ran thus: 
« I didrnot raise my boy to be a soldier >. Against these 
were the thunder-bolts of the Ex-President especially di- 
rected. He countered with the spirited words of Abraham 
Lincoln : < Eternal shame on those of us who rather than 
consent to war would be reconciled to see the nation 
perish ». 

And he further held that the triumph of pacifistic 
theories would expose the United States £o the danger 
of perishing. 

The Americans, he said, have sinned against moral 
law and religion, in abstaining from protesting against 
the invasion of Belgium, and against the other crimes 
committed by German lawlessness. « Neutrality does not 
involve indifference of heart, and never should a right- 
minded person consent to remain passive between right 
and wrong ». When the Saviour saw the money-changers 
installed in the Temple, he did not hesitate for an 
instant to break the peace and to proceed to their ex- 
pulsion. Peace was not holy at that moment for the Re- 
deemer of men, but holy were the lashes which drove 
the dealers away. 

From the first day and for a long time alone amongst 
the people of authority of his country, Theodore Roosevelt 
had demanded the diplomatic intervention of the United 
States in favor of Belgium. 

The premeditated crime of the Lusitania had filled 
him with noble indignation. In it he saw the brutal ap- 
plication of the program with which Germany intended 
to win, by sowing terror on apprehensive and timorous 



— 6 — 

sonls. And he called « a crowd of cowards » those who 
held that America would have been wrong in acting in 
regard to the Lnsitania « people terrorized by clamorous 
German criminality ». 

In regard to Belgium, he did not dwell as much on 
the iniquities which the press of the Allies was revealing 
to the world as on the cynical confessions themselves of 
the German papers. He cites a characteristic example : 
«The imposts which we exact from Belgium » - they 
were printed in Germany, -» would represent the extreme 
limit of the financial capacity of that country, which has 
already been obliged naturally to indemnify us for all 
the expenses it has cost us». 

There is an important revelation, which is due to 
him, which is little known in Europe : The Pacifists, fol- 
lowing the German theme, endeavoured to say that the 
United States, to be strictly neutral, should forbid the 
exportation of arms and munitions to Europe. But he 
recalled one of the Articles of the Convention of the 
Hague - another scrap of paper torn to bits - which stipu- 
lated the absolute right of all neatral countries to furnish 
the troops of the belligerent nations with arms and 
munitions. 

And he farther made known that this same 
faculty which then inconvenienced Germany had been pre- 
cisely the thing wanted, by Germany herself, who not a long 
time before, had proposed and supported its introduction 
into the Articles and had had it accepted in the Hague 
Convention. 

In meeting the clever but specious argument, which 
was apparently sound but actually was made with intent 
to deceive, that the United States must not, under any 
circumstances, enter the War because to them was re- 
served the honour of being the pacifying arbitrators of 
the enormous conflict, he opposed with much political 
acumen the argument that one never has recourse to the 
arbitration of a people which one is accustomed to hold 



_ 7 — 

in scorn when this scorn has been deserved becanse of 
its cowardliness. 

The fear that the American citizens of German ex- 
traction conld constitute a serious danger of national seism 
did not preoccupy him : « The Americans of German 
extraction », he said, « constitute one of the principal 
elements of the population of the United States, and I 
persist in believing that the immense majority of them 
are at heart profoundly and exclusively American. I 
myself, for example, am in part of German origin, and 
of those drops of German blood which ran in my veins 
I am not less proud than of the other ethnical currents 
which are mingled with them. But with all this I have 
the consciousness of being nothing else than an American. 

For Wilson he had very harsh words. It was said 
with striking comparison that he thundered against him 
as Cicero had thundered against Catiline in Rome. 

This heated propaganda of Theodore Roosevelt seemed 
for a time to accomplish nothing. People wished to see 
in the Ex-President nothing else but an ambitious im- 
patient man, eager to regain power. A part of the Ame- 
rican public has never been able to forgive his having 
desired to abandon the tradition created by Washington 
and Jefferson, and always scrupulously adhered to, ac- 
cording to which he who has twice been elected Presi- 
dent should not aspire to a third consecutive term, al- 
though there was, to relieve his conscience, the fact that 
half of his first term was filled by him as Vice-President 
and that he, after his second term, did not at once present 
himself again, out of respect to the tradition. Bat the 
African hunting expeditions, which were a rest from 
presidential duty, and his triumphal return, through 
European honours, had, strange to say, in a country 
which is the favored field of spectacular advertisement 
produced on a notable part of the masses a certain sense 
of repulsion, by giving credence to the opinion that he 
aspired to American dictatorship. His having fought the 



— 8 - 

reelection of his ex-friend, Taft, confirmed this opinion, 
and, on account of the split which occnred in the Ke- 
publican party, made reasonably easy the success of 
Wilson two years before the European conflict broke out. 

Hence it seemed that the Eoosevelt campaign was 
to fail completely. The country appeared to be absorbed 
and intent only on accumulating dollars at the expense 
of the discords in Europe. But events were working to 
make his doctrine triumph, and Germany with her per- 
tinacity was working for it, she who with her obstinate 
provoking of America has fortunately counterbalanced 
many, if not all, of the serious errors of coordination, 
slowness and lack of foresight, which weigh heavily on 
the shoulders of the Entente. 

Germany has acted in America in the same manner 
as she has in Italy. The agents of her corrupting pro- 
paganda were at work over there, openly or secretly, as 
with us to obtain, at all cost, a neutrality, even a humi- 
liating one ; while the behaviour of Berlin and the osten- 
tatious and obstinate outburst of cruelty were rendering 
this untiring work futile and useless by revolting the 
opinion and conscience of the public. 

WILSON AND HIS NOTES 

We come to Wilson and his notes. 

It is not necessary to comment at length on the 
note-writing period, because everyone remembers it well, 
all having had an opportunity of exercising our sarcasm 
on them. There was a moment in which America and 
her President seemed destined to become the by-word of 
the world. 

The ironically inclined and caricaturists had every 
opportunity of poking fun at her behind her back. We 
are in a position to-day to judge her conduct with equity, 
that is, after America has entered the bloody fray with 
decision equal to her fervor. 



— 9 — 

Bat, before arriving at the ultimate decision, what 
mental suffering and secret anxiety ! What justifiable 
hesitation, which, in the eyes of the world, could seem 
to be only proofs of weakness, if not actual sordid cal- 
culation, but which were instead only the manifestation 
of a grave crisis in the conscience of the President, and 
a corresponding and not less grave and painful one in. 
the national conscience ! 

How was it possible at one fell stroke to renounce 
the policy, now more than a century old, which had been 
outlined by the revered forefathers of American inde- 
pendence and which had borne such plentiful fruit ? How 
could one forget the political " Last Will and Testament „ 
of George Washington, expressed in his Farewell Speech 
of .Sept. 17, 1797, in which it was said that America 
should never jeopardize her peace and prosperity in the 
nets woven by the rivalries, interests, combinations or 
differences of Europe ? How could one fail to remember 
that twenty-five years later this political address had 
been solemnly reaffirmed by James Monroe in order to 
erect on it the foundation of his famous Doctrine, that 
Europe must never again meddle in American affairs? How 
could one fail to recognize that the direct and profitable 
consequence of this policy had been actually the tre- 
mendous development obtained in every field of the 
American Federation during so many years of peace, 
which had not been burdened by costly and ponderous 
armaments? And how was it possible to sharply reverse 
the engine for the purpose of following a course diame- 
trically opposite ? 

Would the country have seriously responded then 1 
to a decision which would have seemed hasty and im- 
mature, the country so unready materially, and still less 
prepared morally? Or, would not the adverse and disin- 
tegrating forces have had free rein, pushed and guided 
by those Germans whom America had fattened but not 
yet absorbed, aided in no small measure by those Euro- 



— 10 — 

pean races which had emigrated because of political or 
religions persecution, and which cannot forget their 
hatred of the governments of their respective countries ? 

Serious, unknown quantities these, which would have 
perplexed any man of state, conscious of his own immense 
responsibilities. 

Public opinion, it is true, was being modified little 
by little. Roosevelt stood no longer alone. Nevertheless, 
the great majority of intelligent people undoubtedly de- 
sired that nothing should be left untried before going to 
extremes. 

And, in truth, we needed only German stubbornness 
to push to extreme action a nation whom fortunate events 
had shaped into the most peace loving and mercantile one 
of the globe. 

The United States had at once protested when, in 
February 1915, Germany had enjoined all neutral ships, as 
also those of the belligerent nations, to avoid the waters 
surrounding the British Isles, which she considered to be a 
war zone or to enter them at their risk and peril. To 
these protests Germany had replied by carrying out her 
threat. The protests had been renewed, and the American 
Government, not to be too exacting, had limited itself to 
express the hope " that at least the dangers which threa- 
tened neutral ships, should be reduced to the minimun 
in the instructions imparted to the commanders of the 
submarines „. 

A modest and reasonable request, which ought to 
have been satisfied. And Germany promised. But the 
commanders of the submarines, after a certain time had 
transpired since the promises, torpedoed without reserve, 
without regard and without warning. New protests, cou- 
ched in varying tone from America, and new lying as- 
surances from the German Government. Meanwhile the 
Lusitania had been torpedoed, also the Ancona, the 
Arabic, the Persia, the Sussex and others besides. The 
number of innocent victims was increasing. Notes were 



— 11 — 

pouring down, and the world was laughing, not knowing 
whether or not high comedy was being played, and if 
so by which side. 

It seemed at a certain point that the cup was full 
to overflowing. Public opinion in America, from the first 
side-tracked and absorbed by the enormous mass of ex- 
cellent business with which the War had overwhelmed 
the country, was now being bitterly waked up. One 
does not live by gold alone. Rather, gold can be a source 
of danger and harm when it is an end to itself. A consi- 
derable number of prominent Americans had published 
an address hostile to Germany, or, to be more exact, 
to her Government, and among the signatures collected 
from every field of activity, more than two hundred 
professors of American universities figured, a fact doubly 
significant and important, because a country unless it be 
in the hands of the feeble-minded, begins to stir when 
the schools begin to stir, and also because the American 
universities had deeply imbibed German culture and 
methods. 

On the 19th of April, 1916, President Wilson, sum- 
ming up before Congress the laborious, preceding events 
of the grave question, announced that he had cried Halt ! 

« Unless the German Government does not imme- 
diately declare and effectuate the abandonment of its pre- 
sent methods of war against the ships which carry pas- 
sengers and merchandise, the Government will have no 
other alternative than to break entirely diplomatic ne- 
gotiations with the Government of the German Empire. » 

This necesstited an explicit reply. Lucifer must 
either rebel or lower his head. However, Germany suc- 
ceeded in not being explicit. 

In May 4, the Germanic Government communicated 
to the Government of the United States that it had gi- 
ven instructions to the German ships that mercantile 
steamers should not be sunk without warning and wi- 
thout saving human lives, except in case that they at- 



— 12 — 

tempted to escape or had offered resistance. But, at the 
same time, that Government demanded that the United 
States should impose on England the cessation of the ma- 
ritime blockade, and the Germanic note ended thus : 

«In the event that the steps taken by of the Government 
of the United States should not lead to the success de- 
sidered, and to making the law of humanity in all the 
belligerent nations avail, the German Government would 
find itself facing a new situation. » 

It was evident that it intended to leave the door 
open for itself for a possible renewal of the campaign 
without mercy. The American Government replied drily 
that it took note of the promise, but that the rest did 
not concern it, as it could not « even for a moment admit, 
and, even less, discuss, the idea that the observance of 
the rights of American citizens on the sea on the part 
of the German maritime authorities depended ,in any man- 
ner whatever and however on the conduct of another 
Government in respect to the rights of neutrals and 
non-combatants >. 

And the matter rested there. The German Government,, 
by obtaning the American postponement, was gaining time 
and President Wilson was acquiring the relative tran- 
quillity which he needed in order to face the electoral 
contest of November, which was approaching with long 
steps, and in which he found that he must meet a man 
of high moral character: the Republican Hughes, a parti- 
san with Roosevelt of a haughtier and more combative 
policy. 

But why had Germany sought to gain time? We 
have the brutal confession in the discourse of the German 
Chancellor of Feb. 1, 1917, when he announced the new 
campaign of submarines without mercy. 

In May and in the preceding September he had been 
contrary to such campaign: now he was no longer so,, 
and explained the reason for it. Here are the textual' 
words; « The question in the opinion of the political ancl 



— 13 — 

military directing authorities was not matnre. What 
change has taken place in it? Already the number of- 
snbmarines has changed essentially in comparison with 
that of last yoar. » 

The case is clear : Germany was not ready for a 
campaign without mercy, and had momentarily to yield. 
Bat she was waiting for the right moment to return to 
the assault. 

This announcement of the renewed campaign of the 
submarines, from which Germany expected in less than 
six months the starvation and defeat of England and of 
her Allies, sarprised the President, it may be said, at 
the very beginning of his noble attempts for a world 
peace, which he desired might happen on just and 
reasonable bases. In December 18, 1916, that is a few 
weeks before, there had been his note, in which he 
had asked the belligerents to declare explicitly the con- 
ditions on which they won id consider it possible to reach 
peace, and to which the Central Powers had replied pu- 
rely and simply that they were disposed to come to- 
gether in a conference to discuss the conditions of peace, 
while the powers of the Entente had replied in a rea- 
sonably precise manner, expressing their reasons and 
the ends of the war which had been imposed on them. 

The President did not despair ; rather, he had de- 
clared to Congress on the 22nd of January that, to arrive 
at an agreement, there would have to be a peace without 
victory. 

Germany, eight days later, decided to make him 
change his opinion. One must not forget that, in the de- 
claration of the intensified campaign, there had been 
traced a completely new and vast series of marine block- 
aded .zones, interrupted by passage-ways through which 
Germany gave neutral shipping permission to pass, but 
•on days which she established, and with the stipulated 
obligation of landing at ports designated by her. 

America, which had but one weekly line of passen- 



— 14 — 

ger ships between New York and England, would have 
had to submit to the imposition of landing her ships at 
Plymouth instead of at Liverpool. 

It was, therefore, necessary either to act or accept 
the orders of the Master of Berlin; either to rebel or to 
dishonor oneself by recognizing oneself to be faint-hearted* 
On the third of February President Wilson announced 
to Congress that he had taken the only road which safe- 
guarded the interests and decorum of the Nation : he had 
broken diplomatic relations with Germany and had given 
passports to her Ambassador. 

On the 26th of the same month he asked for Congress 
the means for an armed neutrality in defense of huma- 
nity. Bat in this message also he let it be understood h.Qw 
much it cost him to see his country dragged into the War . 
« It must ardently be hoped », he said, « that it will not 
be necessary to put armed force into action. The Ame- 
rican people do not wish it. Oar wishes do not differ 
from theirs ». While he was speaking the Laconia was 
torpedoed without warning. Two American ladies died in 
a life-boat. Other acts deliberately hostile occured in 
March. War was inevitable. 

We are assured that, to prepare his war message,, 
the President, sat up all night for a scrupulous examina- 
tion of conscience, typing the memorable discourse with 
his own hands. During that solemn night all the past 
events of the patient, sustained strife certainly were 
clarified in his mind, preoccupied but calm. Bnt certainly 
in no way could he reprove himself for what could be 
called anger and precipitation. Every scruple had been 
observed. The great patience used could only reinforce 
the firmness of his decision. Demonstrated patience now 
became his strength. His words were about to raise him 
to a historic triad, personifying three periods of purely 
American glory : Washington-independence ; Lincoln-abo- 
lition of negro slavery ; Wilson-revolution against th& 
voracious brutality of conquest. 



- 15 — 

THE PROMISES OF THE MESSAG E 

What has America done and what is she doing? 
It is necessary to recall two really vigorous portions of 
that message of the 2nd of April, 1917 : 

« Germany — Wilson proclaimed — has rejected all 
the principles of international right by invoking necessity 
as a pretext, and has in this way occasioned immense 
material damage and, above all, the death of numerous 
non-combatants. The submarine campaign of Germany is 
directed against humanity and against all nations ». 

The conviction which the President could now 
freely express was the same which had already pene- 
trated into the most enlightened consciences of the coun- 
try, that is, that the German Government not only did 
not feel any real friendship towards the United States, 
but even aimed to disturb her safety; a truth which was 
proved after the discovery and official divulging of the 
sinister intrigues by which the German Govermnent had 
attempted in vain to associate Mexico and Japan in a 
joint action against the United States, while America de- 
sired nothing else than to be the good mediator of the 
great conflict. The President could therefore speak aloud 
in the name of his people: « We accept this defiance 
and battle with the natural enemy of Liberty. In 
it we shall employ the entire force of the Nation. 
We shall sacrifice our life, our fortune, all that we pos- 
sess for such duty, with the pride of knowing that the 
day has finally arrived in which America can give her 
own blood for those same principles from which she was 
born, and, at the same time, for the felicity and peace 
which she has been able to enjoy. » 

How is America fulfilling this her solemn pledge? 



— 16 — 

THE ECONOMIC POTENTIALITY 

OF THE UNITED STATES 

«■ — ; 

To have an idea of what the , United States can do 
for the common canse it is necessary to have clearly 
in mind the figures which represent her potentiality. 

Her population at the end of 1916 had almost rea- 
ched 102 millions of inhabitants; her total wealth was 
valued at more than 1.000 billions of lire. These are fi- 
gures which indicate immense progress when one thinks 
that in the middle of the last century, in 1850, the in- 
habitants of the United States were 23 millions, and her 
national wealth was limited to about 36 billions of lire. 
These are figures which would seem to be fantastic if 
the War had not accustomed us to treat millions litgh- 
ly, and had not familiarized us with billions. These 
are figares which explain by themselves the long hesitation 
of America to accustom herself to the idea of facing a war. 

The banking potentiality at the end of 1917, that 
is to say, the total of capital and banking reserves, of 
deposits in the banks, of securities realized by them, was 
ascertained to be 195 billions of lire, of which 16 bil- 
lions were in gold. 

During these last three years the commercial balance 
in favor of the United States, or the difference between 
the merchandise exported and that imported, showed a 
figure greater than 40 billions, which represents in large 
part the enrichment which America had made at the 
expense of belligerent Europe, and which were employed 
by her: more than half of this sum was represented by 
the redemption of her industrial securities which were 
placed abroad before the War, and the rest by bank loans 
to Europe, outside of those made by the State, and by 
the importation of more than 5 billions of lire in gold. 

The value of the crops of 1916 had surpassed 50 
billions of Lire, the productions of steel had reached 75 



— 17 — 

millions of tons: the industrial establishmentes wore 268 
thousand in number. 

On this truly formidable basis of economic strength 
and industrial potentiality, the United States hive been 
able to lay their war plans. 

And these plans have been outlined on ttie magnifi- 
cent scale which is peculiar to the initiatives on the 
«ther side of the ocean. 

THE FINANCIAL SIDE 

The financial side above all. As a first war credit 
the sum of 17 billions of lire was asked from Congress, 
which was a few weeks after carried to 35 billions. At 
the end of 1917 the total issue of war loans had reached 
55 billions of lire. A new loan for about 40 billions has 
been voted during these days, and they are already speak- 
ing of the organization of the greatest financial cam- 
paign of the United States, for the purpose of collecting 
144 billions of Lire. 

America has spent for the war, for her own account 
up to the end of 1917, about 39 billions of Lire. She 
has estimated that she will spend several billions per 
month during 1918. The loans granted to the Allies up 
to the 19. th of March amounted to a total sum of more 
than 25 billions of Lire. 

It cannot truly be said that America has hesitated 
in assuming the financial burden, x and this side of the 
problem would be sufficient to demonstrate her interven- 
tion for the cause of the Allies to have been highly 
useful. 

THE MILITARY SIDE 

In developing the military program, the rapidity 
with which the financial part was carried out was not 
America did not have a large army; she has 



— 18 — 

had to take measures to create it. And once she had ac- 
cepted the idea of the necessity of the War, the crisis 
of uncertainty regarding the opportuneness of the volun- 
teer system or conscription has been very brief and ra- 
pidly overcome. 

When excellent and jovial President Taft, in the 
last weeks of his presidential career, that is, in February, 
1913, was wrestling with the intermittent Mexican dis- 
turbances, and considered an armed intervention indis- 
pensable, he had an exact count made of the Federal 
troops available. 

It resulted that there were disposable for immediate 
action against Mexico only 47.000 men. This insignificant 
figure, in addition to the considerations of political oppor- 
tuneness, suggested to the outgoing President that he 
leave the Mexican disturbances unprejudiced for his 
successor, Wilson, for whom Destiny was reserving quite 
different grave anxieties. 

The figures recently revealed by the Secretary of 
War, Baker, tell us that on the first of April, 1917, 
that is, on the eve of the entry into War of America, 
between the Regular Army, National Guard and the Re- 
serve, the American Army was composed of 9,524 offi- 
cers and 202,510 men - for former times an army of di- 
screet size; for the present ones, miserably inadequate. 

On the 31st of December. 1917, always according 
to the official figures, the American Army had reached 
the figure of 1,428,650 men, that is to say, seven ti- 
mes the initial number in the course of only 9 months. 
Another 800.000 will be called to arms during April. 

During the first months after the declaration of war 
of the United States, that is, when the first prognosti- 
cations were being made and they were discussing as to 
the most rapid and most useful way of helping the Al- 
lies to fight Germany efficaciously, it was said and prin- 
ted that America would be able to send to France with- 
in the year from 50 to 100.000 men. We do not know 



— 19 — 

exactly how many Americans have to-day arrived in 
France, bat we know from the official statement that np 
to the 31st of December there was a number muck 
greater than the 100.000, which was the maximum fixed 
by the most optimistic estimates. We know through re- 
cent declarations of the First Secretary of the English 
Embassy at Rome, Capel Care, that everyday American 
troops are disembarking in the ports of France, and e- 
very day cannon and munitions in enormous quantities. 

They spoke in those same forecasts of 500.000 men 
who could be sent daring the year 1918, and we know 
now that 500.000 will already have been disembarked in 
France daring the spring, and that the desire is to reach, 
and it will be reached during the year, one million and 
a half of soldiers, that is, a figure which trebles the 
most optimistic estimates. 

And one has an idea of the kind of equipment with 
which America fits out her soldiers from the figure of 
tonnage which is asked for each soldier: 5 tons. Which 
means that for the entire transport 7.500.000 tons will 
be needed., 

It is not, therefore, true, rather it is evidently con- 
trary to the truth, that America had promised, or allowed 
it to be hoped, that millions of men would be promply 
sent. It would have been unlikely and absurd. She has 
not yet sent the number which her and our impatience 
would have desired, but she has sent and is sending 
a number considerably greater than that promised and 
than that which could reasonably be hoped for (1). 



(1) On the day when this address was delivered the figures for the Ame- 
ricans, who had arrived in Europe, were not yet known. Actually the grandiose 
effort of America was beginning then. Three months later she was able to an- 
nounce that she had disembarked in France more than a millions soldiers. 

While this translation in on the press, the Americans have already to 
their credis the magnificent conduct of their troups, who, together with tbe 
allies, have crushed the great German offensive by constraining the Germans i& 
beat a retreat. 



— 20 — 

AVIATION 

Great help is expected from America for aviation. 
In a program outlined last summer by Oapt. Lagrange 
of the French Aviation Service, aid with' which the 
official bulletin of the United States has had to occupy 
itself by referring to it freely, they spoke of the con-^ 
strnction of 22.000 air-planes and 46.000 motors, of 
which 5.000, air-planes and 10,000 motors should have 
been ready in the spring. 

Also, in this field we have not exact and of- 
ficial figures as regards the number of air-planes cons- 
tructed and to be constructed. But we know that on 
the eve of war there were 1185 American aviators, in- 
cluding officers, and that up to January I, 1918, they 
had reached the figure of 83,240. We know, again, that 
a new bill foresees an expenditure for naval aviation of 
1 billion and 504 millions of lire. These data make us 
certain that attention and impulse have been given to 
the problem of aviation, and that it is on the right road 
to be solved by American broadness of view. 

In aviation America avails herself considerably of 
Italian instructors, who are highly appreciated. 

THE PROBLEM OF SHIPPING 

The problem of shipping worries and chafes Ame- 
rican minds as well as those of all the Allies. It is the 
problem on which the others depend in great part. 

America had perceived from the beginning of the 
period of her neutrality that she was, as regards mer- 
cantile shipping, in a mortifying condition. The man ele- 
ment, which brings energy and impulse to her great, under- 
takings, was and is nourished by the bold and adventurous 
men who had left our continent to, make for themselves 
■on the other side of the ocean either a position or a 
fortune. They were not and are not in a great majority 



— 21 — 

seafaring men : therefore, maritime tradition was lacking. 
Furthermore, she had demanded that obligatory wages 
shonld be established, for. her officers and crews, such as 
had put her in a condition of inferiority in world competition. 
Finally, she had lacked the opportunity of seeing all. the 
necessity of the problem because foreign flags were flock- 
ing to her ports to load her merchandise and her 
travelers. Bat, as a result, and in consequence of the War, 
the sea-faring conscience has arisen from necessity. Ame- 
rica has set herself vigorously about the great work. 

Before the Maritime League, the first president of 
the Shipping Board, Mr. Hurley, declared a few days ago : 

« We were not a maritime nation. Our banner had 
almost disappeared from the seas, and maritime construc- 
tions had almost become a lost art with us*. 

And he added : 

« The new industry which the United States have 
created makes of this nation the greatest maritime coun- 
try in the history of the world. Germany has needed 
forty years to construct her military machine ; in less than 
eight m6nths the United States have built their machinery 
for naval construction which, when it will give its full 
returns, will conquer the German military machine ». 

And from the official figures given to us by this same 
Hurley, we know that since her entry into war, America, 
which had 61 yards for naval construction, both in wood 
and in steel, has carried them to 148 ; and that the num- 
ber of ship ways of these yards has been carried from 
235 to 730, with an increase of 495 ship ways. 

_With this increase the United States possess to-day 
521 ship ways more than England herself. 

The shipping contracted for up to the first of March 
was 8, 205, 708 gross tons, of which 2, 121, 568 already 
launched and 655,456 already in service. To the shipping 
available they have been able to add 112 first-class Ger- 
man and Austrian ships, sequestered in American ports, 
for a total of about 800,000 tons, which had been da- 



— 22 — 
maged and which have been repaired with the greatest 



It is, moreover, known that during last January 
122.000 tons have been launched in America, that both 
during February and March a figure double that of Ja- 
nuary had been realized, that is, from 240 to 250,000 
tons per month ; which means that the work in great 
series, industrially and modernly organized, has surpas- 
sed the initial period and is beginning now to give its 
return. 

As a particular worthy of note there is this ; Ame- 
rica has been able to succeed in constructing a ship of 
£800 tons in only 64 days. 

These are not negligible figures, when one considers 
that the total deficit of the shipping of the Allies and 
neutrals, according to what has been ascertained from an 
English « White Book » of recent publication, has been, 
from the beginning of the War up to the end to Decem- 
ber, 1917, 2,632,297 tons. 

This effort aims certainly at the after war period. 
The correspondents of the neutral and allied press, who, 
during the last days of February have visited the great 
yards for maritime construction have carried away the 
convinction that the American construction is no longer 
limited only to substituting the tonnage which has 
been destroyed, but is assuming the proportions of a 
real naval offensive. 

Torpedo boats are being constructed more rapidly 
than Germany can build sabmarines: a great number of 
scouting boats and submarine chasers is being built and 
with great speed. New means for discovering the pre- 
sence of submarines are making continual progress. 

The correspondent of the Daily Telegraph pointed 
out that on Hog Island (now re-baptized Victory Island) 
which lies a few miles from Philad- lphia, there is being 
built the greatest naval yard in the world, destined, 
when it shall be in a full state of efficiency, to assemble 



— 23 — 

simultaneously 120 ships, from parts which more than a 
thousand factories scattered along the coast of the Atlan- 
tic will supply to it, by means of a specially constructed 
railroad system which has the development of eighty 
kilometers. The 120 ships should be launched in the 
course of eight and a half months, beginning from Novem- 
ber, 1918. 

The gigantic organization of such a work could be 
done only by a great people, which with great means 
has resolved to reach a most lofty goal. 

OTHER PROBLEMS AND DIFFICULTIES 

And to reach this very lofty goal America has had, 
and his, to face in every field the solution of grave 
problems, sometimes unforeseen. 

She his applied herself" with fervor to medical relief 
and we have had an eloquent proof of the generous zeal 
of the American Red Cross during the weeks which fol- 
lowed our disaster of Caporetto. The American contribu- 
tion was truly precious because of the help given to the 
refagees of the invaded regions. 

She has assumed at her own expense, and with her 
own material, the reconstruction and expansion of the 
railroad lines in France over a distance of more than one 
thousand kilometers creating new self-governing lines 
where it was necessary, and constructing immense docks 
for the disembarkment of her soldiers and war materials. 

She has made provision for the interest on the debts 
contracted by exceedingly heavy taxation, which falls on 
anyone possessing property, and not only surplus profits de- 
rived from the War, but also those of all the other organi- 
zations and industries extraneous to the War, by a rate 
which goes on a progressive scale from 20 to 60 % on the 
profits which surpass 9 % of the capital actually invested. 

Sh^ has imposed limitations on the consumption of 
foodstuffs, especially on meat and cereals ; in the case of 



— 24 — 

*hese latter, in the proportion of 30%, and she is now 
endeavoring to reach a limitation of 50 % for wheat.. 
Without these limitations, let us recall and recall it to< 
the minds of the snobs of scepticism, who persist in 
their incurable fatuity of smiling at America and her 
aid, without such limitations we would not have breadl 
for our population. 

Have the Americans not encountered serious diffi- 
culties an their road? Is it all as easy for them as some 
may believe ? 

The difficulties to be conquered have presented them- 
selves, and with such seriousness that they would have- 
discouraged anyone who was not tempered for the contest 
as they are. 

Difficulty of arousing above all the torpor of a cer- 
tain class of capitalists and bankers, sympathizing withj 
Germany,, which was one of the indications of the serious, 
timorous inertia of the first days, and which the Secretary 
of the Treasury overcame, by going in person to unstop 
the ears of those who wished to close them, in the most 
obstinate centers, such as Chicago, and pointing out the 
right road to our worthy Nitti. 

Difficulty of reaching the desired quantity in the 
supplies of coal, notwithstanding the fact that they have 
coal at home in abundance, and this principally because of 
the scarcity which was known to exist in railroad ma- 
terial. 

Difficulties always growing worse in internal trans- 
portation, which had brought about moments of crisis 
even prior to the declaration of War, and were due, in 
addition to the insufficiency of the number of cars, to 
the enormous deposits which had accumulated in the 
Atlantic ports, encumbered and overcrowded with mate- 
rial which could not take the sea on account of the 
scarcity of tonnage. 

Most acute difficulties in labour, because of the de- 
mand exceeding the supply, and because of the controver- 



- 25 — 

sies of labour, which arose between the 7th of April 
and last January, about 3,000 in number. Three thousand 
strikes would not be a great matter where to-day exist 
almost three hundred thousand industrial concerns; they 
would represent only 1 %. But the trouble is that they 
manifested themselves actually in the great war indus- 
tries, where delays were undesired, because of revisions 
of salaries, which the special work and changed conditions 
in the cost of living were imposing. The question of 
labour, which was tending in the antumn to grow more 
intense with great danger to the war preparations, 
entered into a phase of adjustment after President Wilson 
eloquently and in person, made an appeal to the American 
Federation of Labor, convened at Buffalo, and obtained 
satisfactory results from it. As a first reply to his noble 
appeal, seven thousand strikers in Newark returned obe- 
diently to their posts, notwithstandig the fact that in 
that gathering the work of the pro-German Socialists 
had been most active. During these last days the news- 
papers have pointed ont to us that the American labour- 
ing class is replying with splendid spontaneity to the 
call of duty, and is absolutely unanimous in supporting 
the policy of Samuel Gompers, President of the Federa- 
tion, which can be summed up thns : « First win the 
"War and then talk ». 

Difficulties and obstacles due to the still imperfect 
functioning of an organization scarcely created, to law- 
lessness and painful surprises, which here and there have 
been verified, to warehouses which have burned up, or 
establishments which have been blown up, since, if a 
large part of the four millions of population of German 
origin, and of the other three millions of population of 
the countries allied to the Germans, feel now that their 
nterests would have everything to lose in a humiliated 
and conquered America, and maintain a dutiful reserve if 
nothing else, there is a part, smaller in number but 
active and insidious, which is working under cover in 



— 26 — 

the service of the scientific espionage, for which their 
country of origin is celebrated. 

AMERICA'S GREAT STRENGTH: OPTIMISM 

But everything over there is now being overcome 
and by virtue of the great strength in which the Ame- 
rican people abounds : by virtue and merit of its opti- 
mism, constructive, speedy, fighting optimism, which is 
always inseparable from sound energy, and which never 
allows itself to be beaten down, but instead finds in 
obstacles an incitement and spur. The optimism of Ame- 
rica has been the balsam for her great crises, the leaven 
which has prepared all her spiritual uplifts. If the maxim 
is true, that the perverse and the ordinary seek evil in good, 
and the good and the great, good in evil, the American people 
is great principally because of its great optimism. He 
errs who believes that it is the effect of the good luck 
of the Americans and of the favored conditions of their 
land, rich in every natural richness. The same land was for 
centuries in the hands of the Red Skins, and was almost 
sterile. It was optimism and energy which made it of value. 

What strength, what wonderful and enormous strength 
and how much we must regret that we do not possess 
as much of it ! 

If working optimism had aided us all in every phase 
of our War; if we had worked with calmness instead of 
criticising, if we had not been desperately intent on 
small things and had not indulged in so many foolish laments 
and enervating, useless sighs; if we had not lost our- 
selves by throwing biting acid and distrust over every- 
thing ; if we had not too often allowed our fantasy to 
run with free rein in the dark woods of discouragement - 
if, in a word, we had been in this respect a little Ame- 
rican, the atmosphere which produced Caporetto would 
certainly never have been created and prepared. 



— 27 — 
THE THREE PHASES OF THE AMERICAN MIND 

I have lived for nine years in the United States, 
and I believed that I knew the qualities of that people 
well enough. I must, however declare and recognize that 
the great soul of that nation has been revealed to me 
by the War. 

And I recall, since I have had the occasion to re- 
turn there twice, after having left it some months after the 
beginning of the European conflict, I recall exactly three 
very characteristic phases of the American state of mind. 

The outbreak of the European War brought on a 
first phase of great public curiosity and painful uncer- 
tainty in business. People crowded every day in front 
of the hnge geographical maps, on which the great news- 
papers were showing the initial vicissitudes of the con- 
flict on the basis of telegraphic information, as it crowds 
ordinarily in front of the bulletin boards which tell the 
baseball results. It was another and more clamorous ba- 
seball which was being played in Europe, and on which 
one could lay a wager and gamble as on the other. In 
business, however, a depression, caused by the many 
commercial threads which the war had unexpectedly 
broken, was verified. The stock exchanges had been 
closed to avoid a panic in the market. 

In the autumn of 1915, when I was again over there 
for some months, business was flourishing. But the market 
was, or seemed to be, too much the prey of speculation. 
It was, in short, the « business » phase - money, money 
and money ; it appeared that nothing else must occupy 
the mind. The national conscience had not yet had its 
superb and complete awakening, although it did not keep 
silent ; and an evident sign of it, in addition to the wri- 
tings in the magazines and newspapers, partisans 
of a much more vigorous, fighting policy, was the 
exhibits of projectiles and relics of the European War 
which were exposed, together with posters, photographs 



— 28 — 

and suggestive designs, in various shops, especially rented 
by a committee for the organization of national defense, 
tending to recall what awaits him who allows himself to be 
surprised, unprepared, by the brutal appetites of others. 

During that phase, which was certainly the least 
clear, everything caused one to doubt whether the great 
market had been open not only for the purchase of mu- 
nitions, arms and food supplies, but, above all, of minds 
and consciences. One spoke openly of the intrigues of 
the Germans and their partisans, it was said that the 
German-American bankers had already laid aside 200 
millions of Lire to be spent in the presidential campaign 
of the coming year in behalf of and for the advantage 
of the candidate who would pledge himself not to enter 
into war against Germany/The Germans made no great 
mystery of their attempts at corruption. 

A dubious phase, a little cloudy, the memory of 
which only the third could cancel. 

Of the change of mind in the American masses I 
had the first hint in England, just as I was embarking 
again for America in the early days of February, 1917. 
During those days one spoke in the world only of the 
note of Germany which announced the submarine cam- 
paign without mercy. 

At the London agency of American steamers, where 
I went to inform myself if by chance the German note 
had brought about a variation or a suspension in the 
departures, they replied to me with haughtiness : - « Do 
you think that the United States can accept the orders 
of the Kaiser ? The ship will leave on the day and on 
the hour fixed, and the same will happen in the follo- 
wing weeks ». 

And the Transatlantic liner « New York » of the 
American Line left on the third of February with flag 
flying. Twenty-four hours after her departure the news 
came to us that Wilson had given passports to the 
German Ambassador. From that moment our voyage be- 



— 29 — 

came dangerous and stirring. But the flag was not taken 
in. At night we travelled with all lights lit. The star- 
spangled banner, on which the searchlight on board was 
darting its luminous rays, waived gaily, as if to defy 
darkness and destiny. 

At New York we found a great ferment. War was 
considered inevitable^ even by many of those who had al- 
ways deprecated it. It was said everywhere that the 
President should have taken action already. 

And some weeks later the great moment came. I 
shall never forget the superb firmnes with which it was 
faced. And above all never, never will pass out of my 
memory the grandiose, moving, compelling manifestation 
with which Gen. Joffre at the head of the French Com- 
mission was received in May. 

It may be said that the sky was hidden by flags. On 
more than ten kilometres of the streets in New York 
along the route of the procession were millions of people 
roaring and enthusiastic. Joffre passed as if in a triumphal 
dream, without even taking the pains to conceal the tears 
which flowed from his eyes. 

It was the great spirit of Washington which from 
the tomb was animating that of ih6 American people. It 
was the Nation grown great and powerful in popula- 
tion and wealth, which 130 yea.. *°r, recalling the 
benefit and aid received from France, wat 
anxious to reciprocate. It was the generous soul of a 
people whom affairs had tempered but had not dried up, 
which was approaching the Victor of the Marne to say 
to him with the immense voice of the multitude: «Your 
Lafayette brought us his knightly soul and 4,000 men, 
and we are here with our fraternal solidarity prepared 
to send thousand times as many, little by little as we 
shall be able to collect them, ready to send you all the 
arms which we shall be able to forge*. 

On that day the Teutonic theory of historic mate- 
rialism received a fierce blow. And from that day dates 



— 30 — 

the pledge of the mass of the American people to fight 
to the last. 

General Pershing, who commands the American 
troops on the French Front, and to whose generous 
initiative it is due if one hundred thousand Americans 
are to-day in the first line on the French Front, 
mingled fraternally with the other allied troops, with 
the war -like optimism of his nation, has outlined this 
clear war program : 

« Germany can be beaten, 

f Germany must be beaten, 

Germany will be beaten ». 

It has been to Germany' s interest to hasten events, 
and she is attempting the decisive blow before American 
aid may be in a fall state of efficiency. These are days 
of quivering expectation. 

However, although still incomplete, the aid of Ame- 
rica has been precious up till now. Besides the material 
strength which she has brought to the Allies in the 
field of finance, of supplies of every sort, of maritime 
transports, to which have been added the first military 
contingents, she has brought them this incalculable 
moral benefit : the fall and solemn recognition of the 
just cause for which they are valorously fighting. 

The re -affirmation of the intentions of Wilson, ex- 
pressed in a letter sent on the 25th day of March to 
Bishop Henderson of the American Methodist Church, is 
now history : « The German power is a thing without 
conscience and without honour, unworthy of a peace based 
on agreements, and must be crushed. At this time our 
immediate duty is to win the War, and nothing can 
shake us from this purpose until it is an accomplished 
fact ». 

It is necessary that these too may be our thought- 
and our determination. We are in a supreme hour. It is 



— 31 — 

necessary to work and hope, dominating onr weaknesses 
and onr anxieties. 

We are like Alpine climbers smitten by snow-fever: 
He who stops, who is beaten down, dies. And we most 
live, live obstinately, because we can give to the world, 
as we have always given, prodigally, light of genius 
and civilization. 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




020 914 108 50 



FIRENZE 

Tipografia G. Fkatini 
1918 



